The present invention generally relates to vehicle mounted brooms and more particularly to fixed vehicle mounted brooms. Fixed vehicle mounted brooms typically have a rectangular housing that receives a plurality of brushes that are mounted in tracks in the housing. The brushes of the broom are mounted so that they can be easily replaced as the brushes wear. The housing generally includes a mounting assembly to allow the broom to be mounted to a vehicle, such as for example to the snow plow attachment on a pick-up truck. The pick-up truck can then be used to push or pull the broom to sweep an area.
Vehicle mounted brooms are well known. A common type of vehicle mounted broom is a rotary broom. Rotary brooms are mounted on specially designed vehicles for sweeping only. The broom is typically a circular disk with bristles mounted to the disk in a circular pattern. The broom is spun at high RPM on a drive axis to sweep in a circular manner. Because of the spinning action of the broom, there is considerable dust when sweeping. To reduce the dust, some of these vehicles have vacuum systems that vacuum while sweeping is being done.
Rotary brooms are very expensive, they include the broom, the drive mechanism and the vehicle and the vehicle can only be used for sweeping. The entire purchase price is attributed to the sweeping function because of the single vehicle use. In addition to being expensive, the rotary brooms require fairly high maintenance, particularly when compared to fixed vehicle mounted brooms. They also have a problem with excessive dust, which limits their use to applications where large amounts of airborne dust particles are not a problem. They are also of no value in sweeping larger objects, such as chunks of wood, metal parts, etc.
Another type of rotary broom is the drum type broom. This broom is shaped like a drum and has bristles mounted about the periphery of the drum. The broom is mounted for rotation about an axis that extends generally parallel to the longitudinal centerline of the drum. The drum type rotary broom suffers from the same disadvantages as the disc type rotary broom.
Fixed vehicle mounted brooms have no moving parts. They are typically made up of several rows of bristles, which are mounted, to the underside of a housing, which is then mounted to a vehicle, such as for example a pickup truck. By way of example, with pickup trucks, the brooms can be mounted to the vehicles snowplow mounting assembly and raised and lowered for use. When compared to rotary brooms, fixed vehicle mounted brooms are very inexpensive and require minimal maintenance. The only maintenance that is required is bristle replacement.
In the vehicle-mounted broom disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,621,940, the brushes are loosely mounted within generally C-shaped tracks. The bristles of the brushes are mounted within an elongated holder 5 that is received within each of the respective tracks 4. The holder has a head which is slightly larger than the opening in the track to prevent it from falling out of the track, but is smaller than the interior of the track to allow easy insertion, removal and a rocking action. The C-shaped tracks are mounted to the bottom of the housing 1 by spot welding the tracks to the metal housing 1. An angle bracket 2 is also used to hold the bristles in the tracks after they have been inserted.
Although the fixed vehicle mounted broom of U.S. Pat. No. 5,621,940 has advantages over rotary brooms; it still has several disadvantages. One of the main problems is that the loosely fitted bristles reduce the effectiveness of the brooms sweeping capabilities. The bristles ability to rock in their tracks allows dirt, objects to be swept, water, etc. to be swept over and missed by the broom. A further problem is the positioning of the bristles closely adjacent the housing edges. There is no dust collection and retention zone due to the position of the bristles with respect to the housing edge. An additional problem is the limited versatility of the mounting assemblies. The mounting assemblies of the known vehicle mounted brooms do not allow the broom to be easily and quickly mounted to different types of vehicles. Weight is also a problem in many applications. Steel brooms are heavy and are difficult to handle. The heavier brooms are also difficult to ship. Finally, the known vehicle mounting brooms include complex attachment tracks that receive the brushes. These attachment tracks are mounted to a broom frame by bolts or welds. It would be advantageous to design an assembly for mounting the brushes that was less complex and have fewer parts.
The present invention overcomes the problems found in known rotary and fixed vehicle mounted brooms. The broom of the present invention has a main body with multi-purpose mounting brackets connected to a top side of the main body for mounting the broom to various vehicles. Integral channels are formed in the bottom side of the main body for receiving a first set of brush strips. The integral channels extend generally parallel to one another and longitudinally along the length of the bottom side of the main body. Each end of the bottom side of the main body includes a pair of openings. Each of these pairs of openings is adapted to receive a male member of an end cap.
The elongated brush strips include a head portion and a body portion with a plurality of bristles extending from the body portion. The bristles of the preferred embodiment are single member bristles mounted adjacent to one another along the length of the brush strip. The head portion of a brush strip is shaped to allow the brush strip to be mounted within the integral channels of the main frame. Each integral channel includes flanges that engage the head portion to retain the head portion within the respective channel.
Each of the integral channels has a longitudinal centerline and the brush strips are mounted within the channels so that the brush strips do not pivot more than 5xc2x0 about the longitudinal centerline but are still easily removed and replaced by sliding them into and out of the channel. In the preferred embodiment the body portion of the brush strip includes a recess to receive the bristles and the head portion is configured to fit snugly into the channel to lock the brush strip into the channel to prevent the brush strip from rocking within the channel and to maintain the brush strips in a relatively fixed relationship to one another. In this way, the brush strips act like separate fixed walls or curtains to scrape the surface being swept. In the event the bristles bend and allow debris to pass to the next brush strip, that next brush strip acts as a wall, and so on through each row of brush strips.
Mounting brackets of various kinds can be mounted to the top of the broom for mounting the broom to different vehicles or vehicle mounts. In the preferred embodiment, the top of the broom has two sets of four internally threaded openings. The openings receive bolts to attach the various mounting brackets to the broom housing. A set of pockets is used for receipt of the tines of a forklift. Tangs are mounted to the housing for the receipt of the edge of a bucket. A further mounting assembly receives a three point hitch assembly.